Thai police seize nearly one million methamphetamine pills

BANGKOK, August 18, 2013 (AFP) - Thai authorities Sunday seized some 980,000 illegal methamphetamine pills worth almost six million dollars stashed in a truck thought to be heading to the capital Bangkok from northern Thailand, police said.

Acting on a tipoff, narcotics police and local military officials set up roadblocks in Chiang Rai province in the Golden Triangle region of northern Thailand. They found packs of the drug, known as "yaba", hidden in the roof of a pick-up truck.

"It is quite a big haul -- another big haul -- almost a million tablets," said deputy provincial police chief Virat Sumanaphan, estimating the value of the drugs in the capital would be up to 200 baht ($6) per pill.

Three men and a woman, all from neighbouring Chiang Mai province, were arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling.

The frontier Golden Triangle region, where the remote edges of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet, has long been a drug trafficking hub, with surging methamphetamine smuggling now adding to the traditional illicit opium trade.

It is estimated that at least 1.4 billion yaba tablets -- with an estimated street value of $8.5 billion -- are being produced each year in the region, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The drug is mostly made in isolated mobile laboratories hidden in the forests of Shan state in Myanmar, which is also still the second-largest global source of opium after Afghanistan.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2013-08-18

At one gram a tablet 1.000.000 tablest more or less one ton ..hidden in the roof a pick up truck

But they always leave us wondering about the other half of the story: all that X is not going to reappear on the market not long after vanishing, right?

Another fine example of the present governments successes.

Gary Lewis, regional representative for East Asia and the Pacific in the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said.

In 2010, more than 80 percent of all persons who received drug treatment in specialized treatment facilities and correctional institutions reported methamphetamine pills as the primary drug of use.

Thailand is one of the few countries in the region that provides specialized treatment for amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) usage, according to the UNODC's 2011 Global ATS Assessment.

That is due, in large part, to the alarming increase in drug seizures in the region in recent years. UNODC reports that the number of methamphetamine pills seized in South-East Asia leaped from 32 million in 2008 to 133 million in 2010, with Thailand remaining one of the largest markets.

"In the region the international community and the countries of the region have taken their eye off the ball in drug control," said Lewis.

Has Abhisit ever had his eye on anything other than his own personnel interests?

Edited August 18, 201312 yr by Calimotty

At one gram a tablet 1.000.000 tablest more or less one ton ..hidden in the roof a pick up truck alt=facepalm.gif width=24 height=18>

This was a Thai style random eye count.

At one gram a tablet 1.000.000 tablest more or less one ton ..hidden in the roof a pick up truck alt=facepalm.gif width=24 height=18>

This was a Thai style random eye count.

1 gram would be an enormous dose. Even with filler, I can't imagine a one-gram tablet.

Not that I would know anything at all about this sort of thing ...

I am really sick to my back teeth regarding the erroneous playground bullshit that passes for journalism in this country. Such reports are not worth the paper they are printed on and are simply sensationalism . They get a few random facts and try to stick a story round them with pathetic and unsubstantiated drivel. It really is a gutter mentality from the top down.

I am really sick to my back teeth regarding the erroneous playground bullshit that passes for journalism in this country. Such reports are not worth the paper they are printed on and are simply sensationalism . They get a few random facts and try to stick a story round them with pathetic and unsubstantiated drivel. It really is a gutter mentality from the top down.

The pills, the pills, the pills, We're so awesome we found the pills, the pills, the pills, the pills!!!

Pills only pills. And criminals and murderers walk for free,

How long before the same pills are resold on the streets? Never let an opportunity go to waste. After all, it's really all about money.